Carpark firm Tournament defends $65 penalty

Tournament issued the $65 penalty five minutes after Vivienne van Dorsten's parking time expired. Picture / Jason Dorday

Despite drivers’ anger, Tournament says fee is cost of enforcement

A parking operator has defended giving $65 penalties to drivers who overstay by a few minutes, saying $25 of the fee represents its average losses.

The Tournament company also says the grace period before issuing the $65 breach-of-parking-contract fees varies from site to site.

Herald readers have reacted angrily to the practice and related their own experiences of the fee at Tournament and Wilson sites.

The operators say the fee is a cheaper and less stressful alternative to clamping and towing when motorists do not comply with the terms and conditions that they accepted by entering the site.

Asked to explain the fee yesterday, Tournament general manager Rachel Valentine said it reflected the operator's cost of enforcement.

It was made up of a $40 administration fee and a $25 parking fee, which had been calculated across a number of different carparks to be the average of what the lost income would be when people returned to vehicles.

"It is the average we have come up with over the course of a number of years and there is also a $40 administration fee," she said.

"The Disputes Tribunal has upheld the $40 and $25 as a fair and reasonable amount."

Ms Valentine said a grace period before the breach notice was written out varied from five to 10 minutes between the carparks.

Aucklander Vivienne van Dorsten told the Herald her $65 breach notice was written out five minutes after expiry at Tournament Newmarket. "That's no leeway when I'd prepaid $18.50 for three hours just to be safe, because my cut and colour at the hairdressers doesn't usually take that long."

When told that Tournament allowed five minutes' grace for the Newmarket site, Mrs van Dorsten said she now understood why the carpark was under-used.

"I'm stunned that my five minutes' overparking was worth $25 and that my $65 compensates Tournament for other people at other carparks being an hour or so over."

Mrs van Dorsten also said she had written in to appeal but was worried since the Herald told her that Tournament insisted on proof of what time people returned to their cars.

"I arrived back eight minutes late but how do I prove it?"

Herald reader Emily Stuart said she thought it was a 10-minute grace period when she arrived back nine minutes late to find a $65 breach notice on her car in the Wilson Parking site in Auckland CBD.

"How can they support the grace period in some carparks if they are not prepared to support [them] in all?"

The Commerce Commission is investigating Wilson Parking for its signs, pricing and the terms of the contract between the company and the consumers.

Readers respond

Wilson Parking backed down after I wrote to them saying the sign saying the "first hour was free, if validated at The Warehouse" was inaccurate and deceptive. The request from Wilson for $65 for an extra 16 minutes' of parking was excessive and inappropriate to the circumstances. This works out at $243.75 an hour for parking.
A customer [name withheld] of the Warehouse carpark in Newmarket

We parked at a Wilson carpark next to the beach in Takapuna on Friday night. We took five minutes to pay via credit card at the machine and when we came back we had a $65 fine for parking without a ticket displayed. We are disputing it with Parking Enforcement Services (a division of Wilson Parking). We paid $10 at 7.11pm and the breach was timed 7.06pm.
Cat Coombridge

I met my wife in Takapuna after work for a quick dinner and both of us received $65 breaches for being nine minutes late. The dinner cost $100 and with the two tickets from Wilson, the short time out cost $230.
Steve Williams

Pay and display is always a challenge. You never really know how long it's going to take to get the job done. I was over the limit by about 20 minutes at Wilson Parking in Barton St, Hamilton. I knew it and was mentally prepared for a fine. But not for $65. The all-day parking was about $10.
Kirsty Gendall